SAM's 10-minute
OChem Guide
How to learn organic in less time—using cognitive science
Organic chemistry is challenging because it requires both recall of information and problem-solving—but little-known cognitive science offers strategies to improve the efficiency of both.
Let's waste no time!
Part 1 of 2: Recall of information
Organic chemistry starts very concept-heavy: structure, bonding, acids and bases, nomenclature, etc. The instinct for such an overwhelming amount of information is often to make flashcards, but it may be misguided.
Traditional flashcards might look like this:
They get the job done, and it's certainly possible to get score well by studying like this.
But here's why they might not be the best use of your time:
-
Recognition vs. Recall:
-
The first time you see a flashcard, you actively recall the answer. After that, you may just recognize cues—like a word on the front—without truly retrieving or reinforcing the meaning. This weakens learning by bypassing active association.
-
-
Flexibility and variation
-
Flashcards associate one cue with a response. They build inflexible memory that relies on cues—cues you might not see during an exam.
-
-
Organization
-
Flashcards don't help you organize large concepts. You can successfully complete a deck without a robust schema of the overall concept.
-
-
Inefficient practice
-
Traditional flashcards practice one association at a time, meaning that each flashcard only connects one granular bit of knowledge.
-
-
Setup time
-
Creating flashcards costs a small, but considerable time commitment.
-
-
Retrieval-induced forgetting
-
The spacing algorithms of many flashcard apps cause parts of each topic to be practiced among several days. But studying only part of a topic during a session leads to the suppression of the the unpracticed parts (Anderson et al., 1994). This is a phenomenon known as retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF).
-
Now consider an alternative method called free recall. All it entails is simply writing / reciting everything you can remember without any help. It gives you all the benefits while flips all the downsides listed above into upsides:
-
no recognition trap: pure recall
-
builds flexible knowledge that doesn't depend on cues
-
inherently forces organization
-
practices every association at once, substantially more are surfaced per minute
-
no setup required
-
no retrieval-induced forgetting since you practice entire topics at once
It also comes with these additional benefits:
-
Durability of knowledge
-
Effortfully retrieved knowledge lasts far longer than weak associations (Karpicke & Roediger, 2008)
-
-
Retrieval-induced strengthening
-
It strengthens related details you didn’t recall, by activating connected neural circuits and reinforcing associated ideas (Chan et al., 2006).
-
-
Future learning
-
It even facilitates future learning by activating related memory networks, making it easier to learn new, connected information later (Arnold & McDermott, 2013).
-
-
Meta-cognition
-
Forcing yourself to remember without cues makes it plainly clear whether or not you actually know something.
-
Free recall requires significant mental effort. This is why, despite the overwhelming amount of research favoring free recall, it is still perceived as less effective by students:
Actual Performance
Metacognitive Predictions
Adapted from Karpicke, J. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2011). Retrieval practice produces more learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping. Science, 331(6018), 772–775. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1199327
vs.
If you're convinced that free recall is effective, let's apply it to organic chemistry:
Following every lecture, perform a free recall, check your understanding against your notes / lecture slides, then schedule out future free recalls. Tripling intervals tends to leverage the spacing effect well (1 day, 3 days, 9 days, 27 days, etc.).
Free recall poses one issue: you won't remember everything. The parts you do remember will be strengthened. The parts you don't remember will remain weak (if not weaker through RIF). This is a solvable problem.
When you check your answer, recall these details from memory and check them, repeating until you get them right. The gains to storage strength won't be as dramatic, but you'll likely remember them during the next free recall.
As a final measure, make traditional flashcards to single out and strengthen these weak details.
Simple!
Part 2 of 2: Problem Solving
For 90% of Organic chemistry, knowing information is little more than the foundation for the task of problem-solving: predicting reaction mechanisms, drawing products, and conceptual reasoning like SN1 vs SN2, Markovnikov vs. Anti-Markovnikov, etc.
Procedural practice requires a different approach than conscious recall. I'm thinking of three principles in particular: elaborative encoding, spaced practice, and interleaved practice.
Elaborative Encoding
References:
...